Referendum 1: The Most Progressive Conservative Plan?

Brian Hughes, Committee Spokesperson for "Yes for Jacksonville" explains the the other definition of "progressive." The one not used in a political context. (image source)

Warning: abundant use of sarcasm below.

In two separate mailers sent to Jacksonville residents, Mayor Lenny Curry's plan is touted as both "conservative" and "progressive".

One has to assume the mailers identifying the plan as progressive were sent to Democratic voters and the mailer lauding the plan as conservative were sent to Republican voters.

On each mailer, the "Supported By" column identifies organizations and people known to identify with either the Republican (conservative mailer) or democratic party (progressive mailer).

You have to hand it to Brian Hughes, committee spokesperson for the campaign, for his artfulness with words.

When the Times-Union questioned him on the mailers, he spun the word progressive as "there is no contradiction...It will happen progressively, in stages, and will be good for the city’s future by solving the problem, thus ‘progressive solution.’ It is also a conservative policy because it does not require any new tax or a tax increase from the hard-working families of Duval County.” (source)

This is the mailer that explains to Democrats, presumibly, that Mayor Curry's pension tax will take place in stages.

This is the mailer that describes to "hard-working" Duval County families how Mayor Curry's pension tax is not really a tax at all